The Web is more a social creation than a technical one.

I was watching Paris Web conferences this week, and this slide from Jean-Philippe Simonnet’s conference caught my attention.

The Web is more a social creation than a technical one. I designed it for a social effect—to help people work together—and not as a technical toy. The ultimate goal of the Web is to support and improve our weblike existence in the world. We clump into families, associations, and companies. We develop trust across the miles and distrust around the corner. What we believe, endorse, agree with, and depend on is representable and, increasingly, represented on the Web.

source: Berners-Lee, Tim (1999). Weaving the Web. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-251587-2. cited in Porter, Joshua (2008). Designing for the Social Web. Berkley, CA: New Riders. p. 1. ISBN 978-0-321-53492-7. cited in the Wikipedia article Social Web.

A social creation, not a technical toy. We are far from his idea at the moment, but there is so much potential still.